In general, a telephone jack includes an housing having at least one port which provides access, by an insertable plug, to a series of electrical spring contacts within the jack. In the absence of the insertable plug, various ones of the spring contacts are in electrical communication with various others of the spring contacts to thereby provide electrical continuity between the spring contacts. When the insertable plug is inserted through the port, various contacts which were previously in electrical communication with each other are separated, thereby interrupting the electrical continuity between those contacts. In addition to interrupting the electrical continuity between certain of the spring contacts within the telephone jack, the insertable plug also causes other various spring contacts which had not previously been in contact to come into contact to thereby establish electrical continuity between those various spring contacts. Additionally, the insertion of the insertable plug causes electrical continuity to be established between some of the various spring contacts and the internal conductors of the insertable plug. In this manner, signals may pass between certain contacts when the insertable plug is not present within the telephone jack and may pass to the conductors of the insertable plug when the insertable plug is inserted.
To provide these various make/break connections, telephone jacks typically include an isolator spring which deflects in the presence of an insertable plug and thereby forces one contact against another contact, establishing electrical continuity. Additionally, the isolator spring may be biased, in the absence of the insertable plug, to force other spring contacts together. Such isolator springs are typically constructed of a resilient insulating plastic material which is heat staked or frictionally fit into the jack housing. Thus the isolator spring is attached to the housing along with the contacts when the jack is assembled.
Typically, many telephone jacks, such as those just discussed, are located side by side in telephone jack racks. Numerous racks are in turn located in switching bays. Since each telephone line is associated with at least one jack, large numbers of the jacks must be located in close proximity to one another at telephone switching locations. Thus it desirable to make the jacks as small as possible, in order to increase the density of the jacks in each switching bay. Such small jacks are typically referred to as bantam jacks.
However, as the size of the jacks become smaller, a plug which is inserted into one jack may physically interfere with a plug that is inserted into an adjacent jack. One solution to this problem is to use plugs with smaller physical dimensions. However, in such an instance, since not all switching bays in a switching facility will have miniature jacks, several sizes of plugs would have to be maintained. This leads to increased costs and logistical problems.
The present invention relates to a miniature jack and rack that provides for an increased jack density while permitting standard plugs to be used.